Age Group: Over 60's, Participants: 9, Modus: 3 Groups of 3.  

Summary: nice tournament with excellent organisation/logistics/food, courts quite different to Taufkirchen,(cooler, uneven bounce). Friendly participants. Relatively small number of participants, several withdrawels. Simple logistics, with direct flight, quick train connection from cpn to malmö hyllie station, shuttles and hotel package.

I won first game, but lost second game to number 2 seed (who won the tournament), then won both games in the 4-6 play-offs, finishing 4th. 

Result:

1 Lennart Niklasson [2]

2 Timothy Mcglynn [3/4]

3 Mats Edahl [1]

4 John Marsden

5 Carsten Nederup

6 Alois Widmann [3/4]

7 Per Almström

8 Marcus Böttcher

9 Sean Balfe

Matches:

Friday 31st January:

17:00 Sean Balfe: won 3-0 (11-6, 11-5, 11-6) not uploaded to you.tube.

20:00 Lennart Niklasson vs John Marsden, lost 3-1: 11-4, 5-11, 11-7, 11-7 - see you-tube video below...

Warm-Up: Racquet up too late, on backhand upper body faces front wall - should be more rotated... hence less momentum in swing and lack of power in shot. Bounce somewhat uneven, as some boards are loose, so balls with good length don't sit-up, making long-line return difficult: either volley or early in position and full swing: this I didn't do in the match, so Lennarts good length balls, especially floated cross balls forced me to play loose, losing position and on stop of flat cross, the rally.

1st Set: slow start - 0-8 - too many errors! Recovered 4 points before losing 11-4. Tip from Andres: don't attack too soon, or Lennart wins most points. 

2nd Set: Good start: 7-1. Slow moving after shot, so often not in position for short ball. neveertheless won 11-5

3rd set: led 4-0, then played too short, too early, partly because Lennart played an excellent length on lobbed crosses.

4th set: close up to 5-5, then mistakes helped Lennart to 11-7. At 9-6 & 10-7,  much too slow to T, so couldn't reach stop. 

6th Set: see ball late, don't reach many short balls, or have no options if I just reach them, so Lennart can kill the ball. At 5-7 cross instead of long-line, at 10-6 good long line, when cross expected. Winner was tight volley boast from loose cross ball....

Conclusion: 

Focus on 

• position after the shot: get quickly back to the T: ghostings
• position before shot: racket up early, boady rotated towards back wall. FULL SWING & immediate return to T: ghostings
• good length from a good length, longline or cross (avoid being forced to play boast!) Longlines
• watching the ball onto the racket: volley exercises 

More match practice needed, against experienced players on a variety of different courts!

Group B Table LINK

Saturday 1st Feb: 13:00 vs Alois Widman (3-0) 

Sunday 2nd Feb: 11:00 vs Carsten Nederup (3-0) 11-9, 11-8, 11-3 

Position 4-6 Table: LINK